Month: June 2018

No start date was given for the bait-trapping operation, announced in a news release dated 06/28/18. Approximately 100 horses will be removed from lands in and around the Range Creek HMA, northeast of Sunnyside, UT on Hwy 123.

The gather was prompted by letters from private landowners and the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

The HMA covers 83,410 acres and has a target population of 125 (upper end of AML), for a population density of 1.5 animals per thousand acres.

The chart below shows the stocking rate in animals per thousand acres as a function of land area for HMAs in Oregon. Stocking rates are based on the upper values of the AMLs (mostly horses, a few burros and mules).

Three observations from the chart:

Most of the stocking rates are smaller than 2.5 animals per thousand acres

The largest HMA is Coyote Lake / Alvord Tule Springs, the smallest is Hog Creek.

The average stocking rate for the state is 0.97 animals per thousand acres (1031 acres per animal).

The Kiger and Riddle Mountain HMAs, which produce the popular dun-factor horses, have stocking rates of 2.3 and 2.0 animals per thousand acres, respectively. The next gather of these animals will probably be in the third quarter of 2019.

Given that the HMAs are fairly close to each other in the southeastern corner of the state, if a smaller parcel can sustain two or more animals per thousand acres, why can’t the larger ones?

The Beaty’s Butte HMA, one of the largest in the state, has a population density of just 0.57 animals per thousand acres. Could it be the government serfs who run cattle on public rangelands put pressure on the BLM to reduce the number of horses in the area? The same ranchers who pushed for the Beaty’s Butte Wild Horse Training Facility?

Anyone with information leading to the prosecution of the person or persons who illegally removed a twelve-foot sign from the Saylor Creek HMA is asked to call the BLM at 208-735-4600, according to a news release dated 06/27/18.

The Saylor Creek HMA lies about fifteen miles south of Glenns Ferry, ID, covers 101,876 acres, and has a population density of 0.49 horses per thousand acres.

The BLM has asked for public comment on a proposed ten-year special recreation permit for Burning Man, held each year at the end of August in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, NV, according to a news release dated 06/20/18.

Sponsors of the event have asked for an increase in the number of people attending the event from 70,000 to 100,000, enlargement of Black Rock City to 1250 acres and installation of more large-scale art pieces, among other things.

If you go to Google Maps and zoom in to the area near Gerlach, NV, just to the east of the horseshoe bend in Hwy 34, you’ll find the C-shaped grid where the festival occurs.